Saturday, 27 February 2010

The Salisbury community reports a successful and peaceful carnival celebration during Mas Bawi 2010. The Salisbury Enhancement Committee Inc., a community based organization, owes the success of the event to the individuals, organizations and businesses that offered their support and sponsorship by in cash or kind during the carnival activities. Sponsors of the events were the Government of Dominica, Jolly's Pharmacy Ltd - agents for Monster, H.H.V. Whitchurch & Co Ltd - agents for Carib Beer, Josephine Gabriel & Co Ltd - agents for Heineken, Best Deal Car Rental, Concept Technology, West Coast Cooperative Credit Union, and Public Works Cooperation. cont./Courtesy of:Bawi Link Up

Marcia Baptiste of Portsmouth has been crowned Carnival Queen 2010 following the show at the Pottersville Savannah Friday night.

Second runner-up went to Kristelle Fagan and first runner-up went to Dana Augustine.

“Thanks to God for everything. I’ve worked hard and I’ve kept true with God and I would like everyone to do the same and have a blessed 2010,” Baptiste told DBS radio following her victory.

Baptiste said she plans to join the diabetic association that started in Portsmouth. Diabetes was the theme of her talent performance. Baptiste also won Miss Photogenic award, Best Performing Talent and Best In Evening Wear. Cont’d photo gallery

Dominica Carnival 2010 kicked into high gear Saturday afternoon with music, floats, and the annual parade that piled thousands of Dominicans and visitors alike along the street of Roseau.

Spectators couldn’t of asked for a better day, the weather as incredible and provide the requisite tropical heat to go along with the all masquerading going on .

Despite the limited resources for this year’s carnival, due to the global financial situation, many of the bands and gangs did turn out to take part in the opening parade. Flag Wavers, Bwa Bwas, Sensays, HiFi Bands, Mercury Band,and the seven beautiful Carnival Queen Contestants including reigning Calypso King “Karessa” and the reigning Carnival Queen Kayan Toussaint were all in attendance. All in all it was a great opening parade…can’t wait for carnival Monday and Tuesday. cont./

A wind farm in the Caribbean island of Dominica is one of the first three projects to receive US funding under the ‘Energy & Climate Partnership of the Americas’ announced by President Obama at the 2009 Summit of the Americas…

The US Department of Energy (DoE) has selected three initial projects under the Low-Carbon Communities of the Americas (LCCA), a programME launched in June 2009 to help countries in Latin America with sustainable energy market transformation initiatives.

Through LCCA, DoE invited countries to submit proposals for collaboration in renewable energy development and other areas, which will receive technical assistance from DoE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and other national laboratories.

“DoE is committed to advancing clean energy technology development and deployment globally,” says energy secretary Steven Chu. “The Low-Carbon Communities of the Americas initiative offers an opportunity for the department to work closely with our neighbours to reduce energy use, increase energy security, and promote a low-carbon future across the Western Hemisphere.”

The wind project proposed by Dominica would prove the viability of smaller, distributed wind generation as an alternative to traditional utility-scale turbines. Efforts will consider available technologies and economics to identify and model appropriate wind turbine technologies under 250 kW of capacity. cont./

Dominica's Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit says he is focused on repositioning the country as a Test venue by the year 2015, as part of his new Cabinet's overall development plan for the Nature Isle.

Stressing that it was time to take Dominica to the "next level", Skerrit emphasised his desire to see the country transformed into a major player on the Caribbean cricket landscape.

"We are meeting this evening in the Windsor Park Stadium, a sporting and cultural facility that is second to none in the English-speaking Caribbean. Cricket is our passion here in Dominica as it is elsewhere in the region," Skerrit said on Monday at a ceremony that saw him and his ministers take the oath of office.

"My first assignment to the new minister of sports (Justina Charles), with the assistance of the minister of tourism (Ian Douglas), will be do whatever is necessary to make Dominica a Test-playing cricketing nation within the next five years."

Last year, Dominica staged its first-ever international match when West Indies and Bangladesh contested back-to-back one-day internationals (ODI) at Windsor Park, the country's premier sports venue.

The venue will again take the spotlight this year when it hosts the third and fourth ODIs between West Indies and South Africa in May. cont./

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and Cricket South Africa (CSA) have announced a change to the itinerary for the Digicel Series 2010, to be played in the West Indies from May 19 to June 30. The two teams will now play three Tests, five One-Day Internationals and two T20 Internationals. On the original schedule there was just one T20 International but the two boards have agreed to the change to the schedule.

The two T20 Internationals will both be played at the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad. The ODI series starts in Trinidad with two matches, followed by two matches at Windsor Park in Dominica and the fifth and final match at Sabina Park in Jamaica. The first Digicel Test will be played at Sabina Park; the second Digicel Test at Warner Park, St Kitts and the final Digicel Test at Kensington Oval in Barbados.

Please see below the schedule for the Digicel Series 2010 -- West Indies and South Africa:-

Saturday, 13 February 2010

But believe it or not, for some kids in the world, libraries are a relatively new concept.

Thanks to Wausau's Good News Project, hundreds of children in the West Indies now have a library of their own.

A few years ago Patti McInerney moved from Detroit, Michigan to Castle Bruce, Dominica.

An avid reader, one of the first things she set out to find was a library.

"The library used to be at the village council building. It's a small place in the village and I guess it needed more room to expand so they brought the library here to this extra classroom," says Patti.

But what Patti found at the Castle Bruce Primary School was disappointing.

She says, "What I found here was not a library. It was just a storage room for books. It wasn't a used library."

Once locals introduced Patti to Good News volunteers, it was only a matter of time.

"With the help of the Good News people, donated the paint and the wood and my husband building the shelves and the children helping to paint and organize the books, we're getting there," says Patti.

Since Good News came in and helped organize things a bit and brighten things up, the kids, who never knew what a library was before, now know what it is and are finding they like it.

"When I first opened the library, just a handful of kids would come, but now," she says, "We get about 30-50 children weekly."

Polly Pattullo is the cofounder of Papillote Press, a small publishing house based in Dominica and in London. Papillote Press publishes a range of books, both fiction and non-fiction, including children’s books, from Dominica. The titles all reflect the island’s rich culture and literary heritage and a number of them have received critical acclaim.

Located in the Eastern Caribbean between Martinique and Guadeloupe, Dominica is known as the Nature Isle because of its abundant and largely unspoilt natural beauty. Publishers are few and far between in this part of the Caribbean, which makes Polly Pattullo’s decision to set up shop there a courageous one given that small presses and bookstores in the region face tremendous odds as they try to discover and nurture home-grown talent.

In addition to being a publisher, Polly is a published author and a journalist who worked for many years with the Guardian newspaper in the UK. Her books include Last Resorts: the Cost of Tourism in the Caribbean, a critical assessment of the economic, environmental and cultural impacts of tourism development in the region. She is also a co-author of the Gardens of Dominica and Home Again, both published by Papillote Press.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Polly via email during which she spoke about her experiences as a publisher and the challenges Papillote Press faces in trying to win an audience for its writers.cont./

A group of Kalinago children from Dominica has done something quite remarkable. They got together and wrote a storybook based on an ancient Kalinago legend which, from all accounts, is receiving rave reviews, even from fans as far away as the UK.

The book is called The Snake King of the Kalinago and it was written by students from the Atkinson Primary School with illustrations by teenagers from the Carib Territory in Dominica. The Kalinago (erroneously called Caribs) are descendents of Dominica’s first indigenous settlers. They live on a 3,700 acre territory on the island’s east coast that was set aside for them in 1903. They number approximately 3,500 and elect their own chief who holds the position for 4 years.

The Snake King of the Kalinago tells the story of Bakwa, a great diamond-crested snake with magical powers which slithers out of the sea and goes to live in a cave in the mountains of Dominica. When Maruka, a Kalinago farmer goes to see him, Bakwa uses his powers to grant Maruka his wishes. Then strangers arrive and everything changes.cont./

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The Nature Island Blog...

Dominica should not be confused with the Dominican Republic.Dominica is located between French-controlled Martinique and Guadeloupe in the eastern Caribbean.

The official name of the island is 'Commonwealth of Dominica' Dominica's pre-Columbian name wasWai'tu kubuli, which means 'tall is her body'...Dominica is referred as the 'Nature Island', where two-thirds of the island are home to the tropical rain forests and thousands of plant species.

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